Losing Your Mind and Finding Your Self

As the great Zen teacher Alan Watts said: We all need to go out of our minds at least once a day. When we go out of our minds we quickly come to our senses.

Have you ever wondered how extraordinary the mind is? How it can reach from the sublime heights of intellectual ecstasy to the depths of suicidal despair, from piercing clarity to confused schizophrenia? This same mind that longs for that sumptuous chocolate cake or that stunning dress or shirt, then afterwards may wonder why we ate something so rich, or lets the clothing go unworn in the closet and feels guilty that we bought it in the first place.

This mind is capable of understanding the most intricate scientific and mathematical theories and can make complicated corporate decisions, yet the same mind can get caught up in trivia and nonsense, becoming upset or even unglued over a seemingly harmless remark. It runs out lives, pushing us from attraction to repulsion, and creating endless dramas that act out our insecurities and fears.

The tragedy is that such mental play is considered to be normal. We become exhausted maintaining our dramas and thinking patterns—”my mind is so busy it’s driving me crazy!”—as if this were some sort of achievement. In order to reinforce these patterns we surround ourselves with people who think and feel the same way. It is a basic human need to feel loved and that we belong, so as long as there are others out there supporting and agreeing with us we feel fine.

There is no denying the importance and value of the mind—there is great brilliance and beauty here—but there is also great absurdity. Thinking, for instance, is not wrong at all, but are our thoughts constructive ones or do they generate further confusion? The mind is perfect servant but a terrible master! For no matter how intellectually astute or creative we may be, this aptitude often has little or no effect upon the habitual mind and its repetitive patterns: the fear, guilt, anxiety, neurosis, shame, and self-centeredness.

We usually take offense when someone says to us is: “Are you out of your mind?” But what if it is actually the coolest thing to say? What if being out of our mind means we aren’t disturbed or annoyed by the madness of our mind and are more in touch with our heart and our freedom!

Humankind has come a long way in terms of physical evolution; we have developed our world beyond any other known life form and have achieved enormous technical advancement, like going to the moon, but there is still a long way to go in the evolution of consciousness. Evolution takes us from the gross to the subtle, while involution takes us from the subtle to the sublime. We have yet to touch the depth of our authentic self by turning within instead of outside ourselves.

Meditation is being present with what is, and occurs in the inner quiet that is always there, beneath the discursive chatter and distractions. Like the water in a lake, when the mind is still we can see the depths below but when the mind is disturbed it’s easy to get caught up in the waves. In meditation we watch whatever arises, like waves, and as we pay attention so they are unable to take over and run the show. We can experience this through the Be The Change Meditate e-Conference, where meditation comes alive and is accessible for all.

When we get out of our mind and into our heart, then we are free from our insecurities, worries, judgments and self-centeredness, free from everything that keeps us confused, scattered and fearful, free from the dramas and stories that reinforce who we think we are. And we find who we really are instead; we see our limited nature more clearly and discover the vast, unlimited depth that lies within, our true self. In the yoga tradition the true self is Atman, and the ultimate goal of yoga is Self-Realization. When we become Self Realized we are the master of our self: the mind, emotions, and intellect are our means to live in this world, they serve us instead of driving us crazy. We can be in the world but not of it!

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Be The Change Meditate e-Conference will uplift and inspire you. It includes Marianne Williamson, Congressman Tim Ryan, author of Mindful Nation, Sharon Salzberg, Gabby Bernstein, Gangaji, Joan Borysenko, Seane Corn, neuroscientist Richie Davidson who proves how meditation affects the brain, and us, Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of the conference companion book, BE THE CHANGE: How Meditation Can Transform You and The World. Expect your life to never be the same again! Register now and be ready for lift-off March 4-8.

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Great article that reminds me of some of the wonderful wisdom of Joseph Campbell! That in order to become our authentic selves, we have to go inside ourselves and outside of our minds. The ego can ruin us and limit us, the more that we follow our hearts and what gives us happiness then the more we become and finally reach our true potential!

Our thinking is influenced by our neurochemistry which paradoxically is influenced by our thinking. When times are hard, we get stressed. Then we start having stressful thoughts. Then we are even more stressed than before. Meditation is a great way to break a negative feedback loop. Relax the body and the mind must follow. Relax the mind and the body must follow.